I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party… but Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Back in the mid-1990’s, there was a little production company in Moorpark, California called the Magnificent Moorpark Melodrama and Vaudeville Company. The MMMV was a home-grown company, established in 1982 by Kurt Aiken. In 1987, he sold it in 1987 to Linda Bredemann, who made a reasonable success of the MMMV until her husband’s health began to decline. Unfortunately, without her strong marketing skills and due to the changes made by third parties, it met with bankruptcy in 1998, and the MMMV was no more. Larry Janss purchased the theater in 2001, and it went through a succession of attempts at restoration until purchased by the City of Moorpark in 2005. It is now operated by the High Street Theatre Foundation.

This is all a form of introduction, for the MMMV is back (minus the “V”). They brought back melodramas in 2006, and we decided to give the new company a try. The current production is “The Beatles Slept Here,” and was performed at The Secret Garden restaurant, because the Theatre on High Street was unavailable for the show g(they were renovating in January (the original dates), and now the theatre is occupied with “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)”.

The original MMMV had an established company: they knew the art of melodrama, they knew how to play melodrama. That was their expertese, and they justified the first “M” (magnificent). Today’s company is still a work in progress. Some of them had the melodrama down right; some were clear professionals; and some could use some work. They had many of the old elements of the show in place: the hokey introduction, singing birthdays and anniversaries at the break, and the actors serving food at intermission. They did cut out some parts, such as doing the hokey-pokey, and seeing where people were from (“Somis”).

So what was the plot? You want a plot, call Calcomp. No, seriously, there was a plot. The story was about the Penny Lane Hotel, where the Beatles obsensibly slept in 1964 when their bus broke down (back when High Street was named Penny Lane). There was the rotund owner of the hotel (Sgt. Paprika) and his assistant (Eleanor) (“yea!”). There were the teens (Lizzie, Hillary, Brenda, and Jude) (future “Humina-Humina-Humina”) attempting to raise money for the hospital by holding a raffle. There was the evil sister of the owner (Clarabelle Little) (“boo, hiss”), attempting to get her cohort, Dr. Robert (“boo, hiss”) to declare her brother crazy, so she could have the hotel. There was the Beatles Fan Club, a bunch of 40-50ish ladies (Lucy Lawson, Honey, Julia, and Salley) holding a party in the hotel (“humina, humina, humina”, depending on taste). There was the art thief (Mean Mr. Mustard) (“boo, hiss”) and his cohorts Mink (“boo”), Jinx (“hiss”), and Finx (“humina, humina, humina”). There were the punk teens, dressed up as the Beatles (Cheerie/George), Stretch/John, Clovis/Paul, and Lippie/Ringo) to drive Paprika crazy. And there was the dumb detective (Detective Johnny B Goode) to confuse things more. You can find another summary in this review.

As I said, not much of a plot… and even worse, the melodramatic aspects didn’t work well. There wasn’t enough humina-humina-humina to go around (the Beatles-fans were in their late 40s/50s… and the rest were younger teens (<18)), nor was there a clear hero to cheer for. You need that... not just a villain. The location also didn’t help: there was lots of outside noise, including Amtrak, trucks, sirens, and a rooster or two. I do believe the cast tried hard, but the material and locale let them down. The crowd also didn’t seem to be a melodrama crowd (except for a few that “humina-humina-humina”-ed the villainess instead of booing, which was great). Most of the crowd didn’t participate and play with the actors--and that’s what makes a melodrama fun. Speaking of the cast, they do deserve credit. The cast featured Sonje Fortag (and yes, her nose was real) [Eleanor]; Ken Jones [Sgt. Paprika]; Savvy Pletcher [Lizzie]; Amanda Schaible [Hillary]; Kaitie Reimbold [Brenda]; Presley [Jude]; Rosemary Moffat [Clarabelle Little]; Ron Rosen [Dr. Robert]; Robin Powell [Cheerie]; John Kuhn [Stretch]; Cory Fromm [Clovis]; Natalie Kovacs [Lippie]; Chris Carnicelli [Mean Mr. Mustard]; Larry Haney [Minx]; Cesar Augusto Tarquino [Jinx]; Reesha Gulati Tuomi [Finx]; Elizabeth Lauritsen [Lucy]; Robyn Rothstein [Julia]; Susan Nicoletti [Honey]; Patricia Adrian [Honey]; Erica Kuhn [Sally]; Mike Moffat [Johnny B Goode]; Kendra Jones; Gergory Fromm; Spencer Pletcher. The show was directed by Allan Hunt, with musical direction by Robert Brandzel. The show was produced by Reesha Gulati Tuomi.

Will we go back to the Moorpark Melodrama? Perhaps… it depends on the show. I think only a traditional melodrama would be viable.

Next up on the theatre calendar: “The Last 5 Years” at REP East on Sun Mar 25^th at 2pm; “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” at Cabrillo Music Theatre on Sat Mar 31^st at 2pm; and “Cuttin Up’” at the Pasadena Playhouse on Sat Apr 7^th at 8pm. I’ll be looking on Goldstar for tickets for “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” through Broadway/LA (tickets go on sale 3/18)… and through HotTix, tickets for “Jersey Boys” at the TaperAhmanson (tickets on sale 3/12; HotTix on 5/4 or after).